Never Miss an Update.

Arctic Deeply is designed to help you understand the complex web of environmental, social and economic issues in the High North. Our editors and expert contributors are working around the clock to bring you greater clarity and comprehensive coverage of Arctic issues.

Sign up to our newsletter to receive our weekly updates, special reports, and featured insights on one of the most pressing issues of our time.

The fishing village of Siglufjörður, Iceland.
Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0/Jonathan

HAFNARFJORDUR, Iceland – Not long after Iceland won the exclusive right to fish within 200 nautical miles (370 km) of its shores, the cod catch started to fall. Cod was by far the most lucrative fish in Icelandic waters, and fish accounted for about 80 percent of Iceland’s exports in the 1980s, so a cod crisis equated to a national crisis. To preserve the resource, Iceland limited fishing rights with a quota system, which remains in effect today.

At Iceland’s Directorate of Fisheries in Hafnarfjörður, a port town just south of Reykjavík, Thorsteinn Hilmarsson smiles as he shows off the cutting-edge, online public repository of real-time data on all fishing in Iceland’s waters. He types in a four-digit registration number for one of approximately 1,500 commercial fishing vessels registered with the government. A comprehensive profile of the Suðurey ÞH-9 pops up on his screen.

The 37-meter (121 ft) trawler harvests hundreds of thousands of kilograms of haddock, saithe (pollock), lemon sole and other fish each year. Iceland’s Marine Research Institute sets fishing limits for the fleet to keep fish populations healthy, and the Directorate of Fisheries calculates vessel limits based on the quota they own. The Suðurey owns about 0.85 percent of the total allowable cod catch, which means it can catch 1,640,961 kg (3,617,700 lbs) this year. According to the database, as of November 30, the Suðurey has caught 391,634 kg (863,405 lbs) of cod, roughly a quarter of its target.

“I can safely say this is state of the art. No other country does this.”

“This is accurate to the kilo,” said Hilmarsson, who is the the director of Information and Services. “I can safely say this is state of the art. No other country does this.”

Boxes of fish for export are stored on the docks of Reykjavik’s harbour. (AFP/OLIVIERMORIN)

Fishery management is all that stands between us and empty seas. Experts have warned for decades that overfishing is depleting the world’s marine wealth. One-third of global fish stocks are overexploited, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, and two-thirds are in decline, according to a recent study.

Thus far, the Arctic Ocean has been spared from overfishing. But as the oceans warm and ice melts, the threat is migrating north. Iceland has successfully managed its fishery since the 1980s, and its tools and practices could stop Arctic fishing from getting out of hand.

“The Arctic remains a fairly pristine ecosystem and is very fragile. Now that global warming is increasing the incentive to develop fishing, it provides a unique opportunity not to repeat the mistakes of the past,” said Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. “Everybody realizes we have to be more careful there.”

In the Central Arctic Ocean, a lack of knowledge and high risks raise the stakes associated with developing new fishing grounds. Fish stocks there have never been surveyed, so their health remains unknown. On top of that, the ecosystem is more sensitive to overfishing or a chemical spill.

Employees at the Thorbjorn Fish Factory clean cod. (AFP/OLIVIERMORIN)

The Arctic Nations – Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the U.S. – already fish parts of the Arctic Ocean within their maritime borders, which extend 200 nautical miles from their coastlines. Within these borders, fishing is well regulated, says Torbjørn Trondsen, a professor at Norway’s College of Fishery Science.

Trondsen points to the cooperation, for example, between Arctic nations and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, which makes scientific recommendations for fishing in the Barents Sea. A more cautious approach has been taken elsewhere: The U.S. banned commercial fishing in its share of the Beaufort Sea in 2009.

But most of the Arctic Ocean lies beyond this zone and remains unregulated. Last year, the five Arctic nations signed a non-binding moratorium on commercial fishing in international waters in the Central Arctic Ocean, and a similar agreement that includes five of the largest fishing nations is currently under negotiation.

“We know what we need to do to stop overfishing,” said Scott Highleyman, director of Oceans North Canada, the Pew Charitable Trust’s Arctic conservation project. “Keep track of what we catch. Have scientific limits. When we don’t understand, catch less.”

Iceland’s Directorate of Fisheries received the mandate to sustain fish stocks in the 1980s, developed its database immediately and made its data publicly available in 2000. The data is reliable. Independent, certified weighers register catches into ministry databases that are updated every few hours.

The real-time data capture notifies authorities when a vessel surpasses its limits, and allows them to impose fines, confiscate illegal gear and detain or imprison repeat offenders. The net of monitoring catches fly-by-night operations, said Hilmarsson. That high integrity data is key to holding fishers accountable, Trondsen said.

Iceland also treats bycatch unconventionally. It is illegal to jettison unwanted fish and other marine creatures. To discourage discards, vessels return to port with their bycatch and get paid for the juvenile fish and other species, which are then sold on the market.

Cod dry on racks in Iceland. (Flickr, CCBY-NC-SA2.0/Italo)

If other Arctic countries were to implement Iceland’s approach to managing fish stocks, they would have to agree on science-based fishing limits and shared quotas, as well as deposit data in a central system. They would need to make catch information public in granular detail and in real-time for effective monitoring and enforcement. Establishing a region-wide system that can handle day-to-day catches remains far off because most nations lack comprehensive data and are reluctant to hand over decision-making to an international commission, said Hilmarsson.

It was possible to get that buy-in from Icelanders because the nation’s economy relies on fishing. People tolerate yearly adjustments to the catch limit to sustain the economy’s long-term health – and the health of its fisheries.

“Iceland has a population of around 300,000 people. So there’s a more direct link between scientists and managers in government,” said Worm. But what goes on in the Arctic Ocean “should concern every person,” he added.

Back at the Directorate of Fisheries, Hilmarsson reiterates the guiding principle of Iceland’s fisheries management: “Everyone has a stake, so if someone breaks the law, everyone should know.”

Never miss an update. Join thousands of industry insiders and get a free weekly wrap-up of need-to-know Arctic Deeply news.

Republish this article

Our mission is to empower stakeholders and the wider public with high quality information, insights, and analysis on critical global issues. To help achieve this, we encourage you to republish the text of any article that contains a Republish button on your own news outlet.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines. Click to expand

We simply ask that you:

Ensure that you include a line of our HTML tracking code on every article you republish. This is a lightweight, efficient way for us to see the number of page views of each specific article published on our partners’ websites. This does not affect page layout, nor does it provide any information about your users, other web pages on your site, or any further data. By copying and pasting the HTML code in the box below, the tracking code is automatically included.

If, for any reason, you do not copy the code prepared for you, please paste this code snippet into the end of the article in your CMS:

Note at the top and/or bottom of the story that it originally appeared on Arctic Deeply. This note should include a direct link to the original article. Also please include a sentence that offers the reader the opportunity to join the Arctic Deeply’s mailing list.

This should read : “This article originally appeared on Arctic Deeply. You can find the original here. For important news about Arctic geopolitics, economy, and ecology, you can sign up to the Arctic Deeply email list.”

If you want to republish a photo, contact us. Some sources don't allow their images to be republished without permission.

If you'd like to translate a story into another language, contact us.

We often republish pieces from our partners. If you want to republish a partner’s story, please credit the original partner and include a “via News Deeply” link.

Note that News Deeply considers the publication date to be the date marked on the story, and is not responsible for any content that you choose to repost.

After republication on the partner website, please mention the relevant Deeply social media handle in your social promotion, such as @SyriaDeeply, @WaterDeeply, @WomenGirlsHub on Twitter or tag the appropriate site’s Facebook page.

News Deeply material should not to be provided, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, to third parties or affiliates for redistribution through those entities, unless prior approval has been obtained from News Deeply in writing.

You may not automatically or systematically republish all or the majority of our material from our sites; all stories must be chosen individually.

You may not sell our content or republish it for commercial purposes.

We reserve the right to request that any partner ceases republication of our content, including but not limited to if the guidelines listed above not being followed.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact community@newsdeeply.com